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India's one and only aptitude guruThu, 09 Aug 2018 11:32:26 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8GMAT vs CAThttps://www.gpkafunda.com/gmat-vs-cat/
https://www.gpkafunda.com/gmat-vs-cat/#commentsMon, 11 Jun 2018 08:52:19 +0000https://www.gpkafunda.com/?p=6809“Should I write CAT or GMAT?” is a question that bugs several students aspiring to be managers. I have been asked this question innumerable times over the past decade. I would be discussing GMAT vs CAT in this article and the parameters, a student should consider before taking the final decision. Two parameters that I will be discussing in depth are: GMAT vs CAT on the basis of the aspirant’s wish to study in India or Abroad and GMAT vs CAT on the basis of work experience of the aspirant.

About CAT:

Common Admission Test or CAT is a ticket to the MBA colleges in India. It is conducted by the prestigious IIMs for admission into their management courses. CAT result is also accepted by 200+ B-Schools in India. In the international landscape, CAT result is accepted by few international B-Schools, namely, HEC Paris, ESCP Europe, Emlyon Business School etc. thus, the international attractiveness for CAT is low. But the fact that all the IIMs, exclusively, consider only CAT score is enough to make the exam ‘a must’ for any aspirant wishing to do an MBA within the country. Note that the CAT score is valid only for a year

About GMAT:

Graduate Management Admission Test or GMAT on the other hand, is an exam, that almost all the international B-Schools (outside India) consider as a part of their admission process. Even within India, few top B-Schools consider the GMAT score (although most of Indian B-Schools may accept GMAT score for their executive programs, but more on that later!). GMAT score is valid up to 5 years.

A student’s decision on CAT or GMAT depends on whether a student is willing to go abroad for MBA. If the answer to this question is a ‘no’, then obviously, GMAT has little use (ISB is a great option in India, will discuss more later in this article) for such a student, and CAT should become the primary focus. And if a student wants to pursue MBA only from colleges abroad, then GMAT obviously is the only choice.

Now that there is a basic understanding, let us develop a framework to come up to the final decision. I will begin by classifying the student into categories as, my advice throughout this article will be according to the student categories. For this article, I will divide the students into 3 categories based on work experience –

0-2 years’ work-ex

2-5 years’ work-ex

>5 years’ work-ex

I will also focus on GMAT score use mostly in the article as a CAT scores have only a single use – to get into the 2-year flagship program of some of the top B-Schools in our country.

0-2 years’ work-ex (Category 1)

I will include the prefinal and final year students in this category. If a student in this category decides to do an MBA, and is open to both abroad and in India, then the below possibilities exist –

GMAT score use abroad: based on the work experience, the student will not be suitable for most of the MBA colleges abroad. The best course recommended abroad at this juncture for a student is the MiM course. It is tailor made for students with little or no work experience. The students at this level will relate a lot more to the MiM courses over MBA courses and are more likely to extract the maximum value from MiM over MBA courses abroad. I highly recommend students of this category to not worry about MBA but focus on MiM programs abroad. You can read more about MiM programs here – http://www.careerlauncher.com/gmat/mim-vs-mba/

If you are more technically oriented and like to have a mix of management and engineering, there are courses called MEM that blend these two together. You can read more about Masters’ of Engineering Management here –

GMAT score use in India: students of this category can use GMAT score only in few Indian colleges for respective 2-year flagship MBA programs. While there might be other colleges accepting GMAT scores in India for their MBA program, I am sticking only to the top 20 colleges that accept the score for the comments below

There are only 2 colleges in the top 20 that accept GMAT scores as a part of their admission process into their 2-year flagship MBA programs. These are –

ISB – Indian School of Business accepts only GMAT scores for all its programs. It is positioning itself as an international B-School offering 1-year MBA programs. ISB has a minimum work-ex requirement of 2 years for students to get admitted into the course. However, it has processes such as YLP and EEO (for students who are in college or working but have less than requisite work-ex respectively) that enable all students in this category to apply. You can read more about these programs here –

SPJIMR – SP Jain Institute of Management & Research accepts GMAT score on par with CAT scores. However, students usually tend to write CAT over GMAT due to the cost difference in the exam. But if you think that GMAT is more suitable to you, you can apply to this college using your GMAT score too!

2-5 years’ work-ex (category 2)

Students of this category will have mixed options now that MBA from colleges abroad is also suitable for them. Unless you decide not to go abroad (also ISB is not in your consideration set in which case CAT is and other Indian exams are options left) or decide to pursue MBA abroad (in which case GMAT is the option), you should focus primarily on CAT but also give GMAT a shot. The reasons for this is –

Preparing for CAT is much more rigorous than your standalone preparation for GMAT thereby making parallel preparation for GMAT easier

Students above 4 years of work-ex can use GMAT scores to apply to executive programs from some of the top colleges in India (like the IIMs, XLRI etc.)

Value addition for longer work-ex students from MBA courses abroad will be higher than that of courses in the country. Typically, 4 years point is where the CAT becomes the secondary preference and GMAT takes the first spot

>5 years’ work-ex (category 3)

Clearly for this group of students, GMAT will be the only way out. CAT will become unsuitable for the students as most of the Indian colleges will not add great value for students with such work-experiences compared with MBA options abroad

Students of this category can also seriously consider 1-year executive MBA programs within the country (GMAT maybe required)

GMAT vs CAT : Exam comparison

Now that we have a basic understanding on who should go for which exam and at what point of their career, let us focus on the comparison on the exams themselves.

As someone who has taught for both CAT and GMAT and who has given both the exams, I can say that overall, CAT is difficult over GMAT.

QR+VR together is for 800. AWA is separately rated on a scale of 0-6 and IR is rated on a scale of 1-8

Questions per section

34 in VA, 32 in DILR, 34 in QA

1 AWA, 12 IR, 31 QR, 36 VR

Score validity

1 year only

5 years

Cost

1600/- (general category)

$250 (all categories)

Exam Date

Usually November every year in two slots

Conducted every day in multiple centers across the country

Nature of Exam

Computer based delivery

Computer based by adaptive nature of questions

Comparison of Quant

If you are preparing for CAT, then the Quantitative ability of CAT will easily surpass the requirement of GMAT Quant. Theory of CAT Quant is much more than GMAT Quant. You will only need to spend time on the question format of GMAT. The only additional part needed is to practice data sufficiency type questions in GMAT (DS usually does not come in CAT so lesser focus in CAT preparation)

For a student preparing for CAT, I would say a total of 1 month of extra preparation is needed to master GMAT Quant – mainly for the Data Sufficiency part and practicing GMAT type questions

Comparison of English

CAT Verbal on the other hand, is a notch below that of GMAT. CAT (since 2015 to the time of writing this article in 2018) has been extensively testing students on RC (Reading Comprehension). 24 out of the 34 questions in CAT VA are from RC and the rest are for para-jumble, para completion etc. GMAT VR on the other hand has more or less equally distributed RC, SC (sentence correction) and CR (Critical Reasoning)

The CAT RC will need a couple of weeks’ extra preparation to match the GMAT RC requirement; the CAT grammar preparation will need 2-3 weeks extra preparation to make a student ready for GMAT grammar (Sentence Correction). Critical Reasoning on the other had is not very well addressed in CAT preparation and as such will need a whole month of preparation. In effect, I suggest a student spend 30 days (at least) to transition from CAT to GMAT (assuming parallel preparation).

Comparison of LR/DI

CAT has a complete section called DI/LR as a part of the CAT exam and the score is a part of the overall CAT score. GMAT however has a section called IR (integrated reasoning) and this section’s score is NOT a part of the GMAT final score because of which students tend not to take this section as seriously as the English and Quant sections.

Comparatively, CAT’s DI/LR is easily a few notches above the IR section of GMAT. In fact, the last three years of CAT’s DI/LR section had students in tears. This section of CAT tests a student’s understanding of tables, various graphs, logical puzzles, data analysis etc. There is no syllabus as such for this (although, most institutes like CL, based on years of analysis have designed course structure that encompasses most of the type of questions) and a question can come in any format (entirely new or well known). IR of GMAT on the other hand is well balanced and has questions from 4 well defined areas and no surprises as such. Preparing for IR in GMAT therefore becomes much easier than for DI/LR in CAT.

GMAT vs CAT: Summing it all up

In conclusion, the decision to write GMAT or CAT will depend on –

What is your MBA destination? (India or Abroad)

How much of work-ex do you have (which of the categories mentioned above do you fall)

If you notice, not more than 4-5 colleges accept both GMAT and CAT score. So, the comparison of the exams is of little consequence (since comparison comes if you can choose which exam to write given both scores can be used to apply to the same college)

With exactly eight months to CAT 2018 (CAT is expected to be on 25th November 2018), it is high time for a person who has decided on doing an MBA to start preparing for this enigmatic exam! Read to find out the ideal CAT preparation plan

How many hours per day one needs to prepare for CAT?

This question has no right answer. If you have already prepared and written the CAT exam, then about 6 to 7 hours per week till July and then increasing the prepping hours would do. However, if you are beginning your CAT preparation today, then it may require closer to 20 hours per week or more depending on your state of preparedness, especially in the Quant and the Verbal Areas!

But, before one starts prepping for the CAT (or any MBA entrance exam), it is imperative to understand what entails the CAT exam and what marks/percentiles are required to get into an IIM or other institutes. The CAT pattern has remained same for the last three years (CAT 2015, CAT 2016 and CAT 2017).

CAT 2017 revisited

The CAT 2017 paper, held on 26th November 2017, had three sections. The exact pattern of the paper is reproduced below.

Section

Area

No of Qns

Marks in Section

Time Limit

Section I

Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC)

34

102

60

Section II

Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning (DILR)

32

96

60

Section III

Quantitative Ability (QA)

34

102

60

Total

100

300

180

The student could attempt only one section at a time in the above given order. Once the student had finished one section, there was no provision to go back to that section again.

Each section consisted of Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) as well as non-Multiple Choice Questions (non-MCQs). Also, There were Negative marks (-1) for wrong answers for MCQ questions. For Non-MCQ questions, there were No negative marks

Understanding Percentile

You keep hearing from people that someone got a 100%ile or a 99 %ile or a 80%ile!

What exactly does a percentile mean?

A percentile is calculated as the Percentage of people below your marks in a particular exam.

For example, if in an exam, there are 100 students writing the same, and one gets a FIRST Rank (mind you, it is NOT the full marks, only the first rank with whatever marks compared to the rest of the students), then there would be 99 students below this student. 99 students out of 100 (meaning 99% of students) are below the student and hence the student will get 99%ile in that exam.

In the same exam, if someone gets a 10th Rank, then the percentile would be 90%ile (as 90% of the students would have a got a mark lower than this student).

An illustration of how a percentile is calculated is given below:

No. of People Writing

Rank

Percentile

100

1

99

10

90

10,000

1

99.99

100

99

1,000

90

1,00,000

1

99.99=100

100

99.9

1,000

99

10,000

90

CAT 2017 was written by about 2,00,000 students. To be in the top 90 %ile, then one has to be in the top 10% of the students (or in the top 20,000 ranks). Not very difficult, mind you, if you put in sincere effort!

Getting into IIMs is a coveted dream of many a students. But, most students do not even attempt CAT or prepare for the same seriously only because they are not aware of what gets them this seat in an IIM.

The percentile required to get a seat in the top 3 IIMs for a Open Category (student with no reservation) student is around 99 percentile. Similarly, if one has to get into the next top 10 IIMs, the percentile for an open category student would be about 96%ile. An OBC candidate, an SC or an ST candidate will require much less percentile to make it to the top IIMs. Add gender diversity and academic diversity to the same, then the percentile required reduced even further.

It is pertinent to note that CAT is also used as the written exam for almost all top Management institutes in the country including FMS Delhi, Sp Jain Mumbai, MDI Gurgaon, NITIE Mumbai, all IITs and a host of others!

The only reason students don’t take up CAT is because they do not even know how easy it is to get into an IIM (given ofcourse that one prepares consistently)!

Here’s therefore a quick information on what the marks required are for each of the sections as well as the overall marks required for obtaining various percentiles.

CAT 2017 Percentiles and Scores

Percentile

Overall

99.5

190

99

173

95

140

90

125

As one can see, by getting about 173 marks out of 300 marks in the CAT exam, one gets a percentile close to 99!

By getting a percentile of around 96 (144 score), one can easily get a call from the New IIMs and with a little higher percentile into some of the older IIMs too! And to get 96 percentile, one has to score just about 144 marks out of 300!

Mission IIM

The road to IIM is through CAT (except of course you are an NRI and then you write GMAT!)

Preparing for CAT require one to have targets/milestones and since the exam is expected to be at the end of November, the plan would require one to do certain tasks and reach a certain stage.

To make it easy, the following plan can give a kick-start to your CAT campaign!

CAT preparation plan – April to July

The objective in these 4 months would be to gain complete familiarity in the areas, topics, concepts and type of questions that the CAT exam has.

In the months of April, May, June and July, the focus should be in going through all the topics in all areas of CAT viz QA, DILR and VARC. However, the preparation for each would be different and the way to improve in each areas is given in the next article. Suffice it to say that these 100 days (a student may have three or two months only till July depending on when one starts preparing), the expectation is that all topics are covered at least once (First Round of Work).

Funda of Concepts, Application & Tests

Basics in terms of Concepts are formulae to be revised for each topic

Exercises to be solved to understand Application of Concept

Topic wise Tests to be taken to get know the level and one’s speed (through the Test Gym)

Start writing the Mock CATs to understand the overall exam

CAT preparation plan – August & September

These two months are crucial to your preparation. You have to work on Strategy, Second revision and continue taking Full Length Mocks CATs and Experiment on Strategy.

We will discuss this in more detail once we come closer to August. But, it is important to note that the two months of August and September are also important in applying to various exams at the same time continuing the focus on preparation

Here, apart from the Mock CATs, Areas wise tests and Section wise tests to be taken to iron out the weaknesses while improving /honing on one’s strengths.

CAT preparation plan – October & November

The last two months (40 to 50 days) before CAT would be the final assault on the exam! Here one has to prepare for a third revision, taken more sectional tests, finalise on the exam strategy while writing about 10 Mocks, A thorough analysis of each of the tests one writes, zeroing in on the problem areas, working towards eliminating the problem areas AND finally strengthening the Mental ability to crack this exam would be the requirements.

Once we come closer to October a longer version of what exactly needs to be done would be shared!

In the part-2 of the article, we would get into specifics of each of the areas of the CAT exam.

ARKS Srinivas, is an alumnus of IIM Calcutta and has over 18 years of experience in training students for CAT and other Management Entrances. He is the CEO for the MBA Products at Career Launcher which is the No 1 Test Prep company in Management and Law and is the only one in this area to be listed on the stock exchange.

To enroll, please Click here. If you are already a student, please share this link to your friends who are planning to write CAT!

NMIMS (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies) and SIBM P (Symbiosis Institute of Business Management) have released their final admission lists, long before the IIM interviews have even come to a close. The dilemma plaguing many a student’s minds would be: Which institute to choose between nmims-vs-new-iims-vs-sibm-p

NMIMS and SIBM-P are the two institutes which are often pitted against the newer batch of the IIMs, which are included in the CAP (Common Admission Process). Is brand ‘IIM’ efficacious enough to trump these two seasoned B-schools? Lets look at nmims-vs-new-iims-vs-sibm-p

There are a lot of factors to be considered while evaluating a B-School. Placements are given the first priority by many students while choosing where to go. While not a bad parameter, it is definitely not a comprehensive one. Amidst reports of B-Schools exaggerating their placement claims, it is especially not advisable to not consider other factors. When it is the question of investing the next two years of your life, personal parameters also play a role. The broad parameters which should be looked at, are:

Location (sometimes personal)

Fee (personal)

Specialisation (very personal)

Umbrella factor: Other factors

Since students have to decide between SIBM-P and NMIMS right now, here is a comparison between the two:

LOCATION: NMIMS might have a slight edge here, in terms of placements, specially for finance.

BATCH STRENGTH: SIBM scores over NMIMS here as the batch size of NMIMS is around 500 students, while that of SIBM remains around 180. Batch size creates rippling effect when it comes to placements.

COURSE FEE: NMIMS course fee is Rs.17.5 L (excluding hostel) and SIBM’s is Rs. 20 L (including hostel). The cost of living in Mumbai will bring the total cost to about the same level.

As for nmims-vs-new-iims-vs-sibm-p, even though they are new products in the market right now, they have gained their footing, thanks to the IIM name. The students that have secured placements in good companies may influence their recruitment managers to continue to recruit from the new IIMs they came from, by performing well and proving the merit of the institute.

Since the new IIMs are mentored by old ones, in-class learning experience is matched with the mentor IIM even though their campus may not be on par with the mentor IIM. For most of the new IIMs, their own campus is under construction and it won’t be long before they shift to their permanent campuses. The faculty that teaches at new IIMs in loaned to them by their mentor IIMs, so there is the assurance of best faculty.

Students in the newer IIMs can also register for any elective offered owing to the small batch size while the same elective may have restricted number of sections taught in the mentor IIMs. In the long run, brand IIM will take these institutes to heights. In true Apple fashion, an IIM is an IIM is an IIM..

All said, for nmims-vs-new-iims-vs-sibm-p, the final choice should be made on the basis of desired specialisation, if one is very sure of the specialisation one wants to pursue.

For Finance specialisation, IIM Ranchi and NMIMS should be preferred over the other institutes. This may not come as a surprise to many as IIM Ranchi is being mentored by IIM Calcutta, the known finance campus of India. NMIMS is situated in the finance capital of India, and hence, there are no second thoughts here. Placements are influenced a lot by location.

For Marketing specialisation, SIBM-P and IIM Udaipur are clear winners. In final placements of 2017, about 30% of the offers made were in the marketing role in SIBM-P. Time and again, marketing role has proved to be a major contributor in the placements in SIBM-P.

For Human Resources specialisation, SIBM-P and IIM Ranchi should be given preference. IIM Ranchi is emerging as the fastest growing new IIM, which has a lot to do with it being mentored by the oldest IIM!

]]>https://www.gpkafunda.com/nmims-vs-new-iims-vs-sibm-p/feed/1Indian MBA programs in FT Global MBA rankings of 2018https://www.gpkafunda.com/indian-mba-programs-global-ranking-2018/
https://www.gpkafunda.com/indian-mba-programs-global-ranking-2018/#commentsMon, 05 Feb 2018 12:38:14 +0000https://www.gpkafunda.com/?p=6479Financial Times has released it’s 2018 Global MBA rankings featuring 100 universities across the world. Stanford Graduate School of Business tops this year ranking nudging Insead to the number two position. While the top 10 in the ranking are dominated by US universities, Indian colleges have made their presence felt. Four of the Indian colleges featured in the top 100 business programs across the globe and 3 of these under the top 50! Access the complete list here – http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/global-mba-ranking-2018. Read the article to know more about Indian MBA programs Global Ranking 2018.

The 4 institutes features are ISB, and the top 3 IIMs namely Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta. ISB slipped one rank over the previous year to clinch the 28th spot in the list. Bangalore and Calcutta saw a significant up move in their rankings – Bangalore moved from 49th position in 2018 to 35th rank in 2018 where as Calcutta was ranked 78th this year over the 95th rank the year before. IIM Ahmedabad slipped three places this year to land at the 31st position.

One can rejoice that the overall performance of the Indian varsities was commendable as the marginal slip in positions of ISB and IIM A were more than compensated by the huge jump by IIM C and IIM B. The overall salary figures were also encouraging with the three-year average salary post-graduation having an overall uptick by all except IIM Ahmedabad which saw a marginal reduction.

As before, the concern area amongst our universities is the very limited presence of foreign students, foreign exposure possibility in the course and research. Most of the students who do not go for foreign exchange programs have little or no global exposure that defines a “Global MBA Program”. Since the weightage given to the components that are affected by the above two areas is roughly 25%, the Indian colleges have taken a hit despite performing better on certain fronts such as the salary increase, career progress etc. The work in front of our top colleges is clearly cut out and the only way to jump up the rankings is to tighten the belt and prepare to take on the three areas mentioned above!

The factors and their respective weightages considered for the FT rankings are –

]]>https://www.gpkafunda.com/indian-mba-programs-global-ranking-2018/feed/6Top B-Schools where you can still apply through CAThttps://www.gpkafunda.com/top-b-schools-apply-cat-xat-cmat/
https://www.gpkafunda.com/top-b-schools-apply-cat-xat-cmat/#commentsWed, 31 Jan 2018 05:29:24 +0000https://www.gpkafunda.com/?p=6444You are advised to not only apply to B-Schools where the cut-offs are around or a little more than what you have scored, but also to some where the cut-offs are less than your score.

The cut-offs listed below are for General Category. In colleges where NC-OBC, SC and ST reservations exist, please reduce the cut-offs by 10%, 20% and 30% respectively to get the category cut-offs. Continue to read about Top B-Schools where you can still apply through CAT/XAT/CMAT

B-School

Last Date

Expected Cut-off
(Percentile)

Our Rating

Avg Sal 2017
(lacs per year)

JBIMS Mumbai (MMS/MSc Fin)

Through Mah-CET. Wait for the notification.

A++/A

18.8/16.3

SRCC (PGDBO)

31st January

Own Test (4th Mar)

B

8

IIT Bombay (Only engineers)

31st January

97.5

A+

17.6

NITIE Mumbai (PGDIM/PGDISEM)

22nd January

97/94
(92/90 in each section)

A+

16.9/15.9

IISc Bangalore (Only engineers)

March – mid

95

A

16.1

IIT Delhi (Non-engineers can also apply)

29th January

95(Profile very important)

A

16.2

IIT Kharagpur (MBA – only engineers)

30th January

93(Difficult for freshers to get in)

A

15.6

IIT Madras (Non-engineers can also apply)

29th January

94(Profile also considered)

A-

11.9

IIT Roorkee (Only engineers)

29th January

94(Profile also considered)

A-

9.2

MFC & MBE (DU)

Open

94(Profile also considered)

A-

11.7/9

IIT Kanpur (Only engineers)

29th January

92(Profile also considered)

A-

10.4

IIM Ranchi (PGDHRM)

February – mid

90 (70 in each)

A-

13.8

IMI Delhi (PGDM/HR/B&FS)

21st January

90/85/83

A-/B+/B+

12.5/10.8/12.1

(60 in each section, except PGDM QA 75%ile)

*IMT Ghaziabad / Nagpur / Hyderabad

21st January

90/70/65

A-/B-/C+

11/7.5/7

*IRMA Anand

20th January

80

A-

10.2

*MICA Ahmedabad

5th February

80

A-

12.6

*TAPMI Manipal (PGDM/Banking&Fin Ser)

May extend

85/90

B+/B

10

(lower for candidates with work-ex)

*K J Somaiya Mum (PGDM/IB/Comm/Fin Ser)

31st January

87

B+/B/B-/B-

9.2

*Fore Delhi (PGDM/IBM)

18th January

85/78

B+/B

9.4

LBSIM Delhi (PGDM/Fin)

Open

84/82

B+/B

8.5

IIT Kharagpur (MHRM – only engineers)

16th February

83

B+

9.5

BIM Tiruchirapalli

31st January

80

B+

10

*LIBA Chennai

31st January

80

B+

9

(18 %ile in VARC, 49 in DILR & 42 in QA)

UBS Chandigarh (Gen/IB/HR)

Will re-open

90/85/80

B

7.6

*Great Lakes Chennai/Gurgaon
(2 year PGDM)

25th February

85/80(Profile-based)

B/B-

9.3/9.1

FMS (BHU)

22nd January

80

B

7

NIBM Pune

20th March

80

B

10

Nirma Ahmedabad

29th January

80 (40 in each)

B

8.2

*Welingkar Mumbai / Bengaluru

26th January

80/75

B

8/7

*IFMR Chennai

5th February

75 (Profile-based)

B

8.5

BITS Pilani (Only engineers)

15th February

70 (Profile-based)

B

7.5

MDI Murshidabad

31st January

70

B

8

*IIFM Bhopal

10th February

84 (78 in each)

B-

6.4

NIT Trichy (Non-engineers can also apply)

Details Awaited

75

B-

6.5

*BIMTECH Noida

31st January

70

B-

7.5

Delhi School of Mgmt (DTU) ~(Non-engineers can also apply)

Details Awaited

70

B-

6.4

IISWBM Kolkata (MBA/MHRM)

Open

70/60

B-/C

7/5

*SDM IMD Mysore

28th February

70

B-

6.5

SIES Mumbai

Details Awaited

70

B-

6.7

*XIME Bengaluru

25th February

70

B-

6.7

*IMI Kolkata/Bhubaneswar

28th January

65

B-

6.2/7.5

NIA SOM Pune

15th March

65

B-

7

*XISS Ranchi (HRM/Others)

20th February

65/50

B-/C

8/5 or less

Christ University Bengaluru (MBA)

20th January

70

C+

*Amrita Coimbatore

31st January

65

C+

*BIMM Pune

28th January

65

C+

*Chetana Mumbai

Details Awaited

65

C+

N L Dalmia Mumbai (PGDBM)

Details Awaited

65

C+

AIM Kolkata

31st January

60

C+

*ISB&M Pune/Kolkata/Bangalore

Open

60

C+/C/C

*ITM Mumbai

31st March

60

C+

*TAPMI SOB Jaipur

Open

60

C+

Application forms for B-Schools like AIMS, Apeejay, BML Munjal, Globsyn, EMPI, Jaipuria, IBA, IFIM, IILM, Jindal, Kirloskar, NDIM, PIBM, Presidency Bengaluru, TSM Madurai, United World, Woxsen etc are also available. These B-Schools would shortlist using CAT/XAT/CMAT/MAT scores and could be available at 60 percentile or lower.

* Institutes with an asterisk before their names also accept the XAT scores.

XAT

XAT 2018 Score vs Expected Percentile

(This is based on the test conducted on 7th January 2018 and is subject to revision if the XAT authorities use normalization or any other method on account of the retest.)

Score

Percentile

33

95

30

90

27.5

85

25.5

80

24

75

All the colleges mentioned in the earlier list, which accept XAT scores will have similar cutoffs for XAT as well. There are two exceptions though –

K J Somaiya – 75%ile in XAT

LIBA – 70%ile in XAT (68 %ile in VARC, 37 in DM & 49 in QA)

The last dates to apply will also be the same except for IMT (31st January) and TAPMI (probably till after declaration of XAT results). Some more colleges may extend their last dates, however, you are advised not to wait any longer and apply asap if you are interested in any college(s).

]]>https://www.gpkafunda.com/top-b-schools-apply-cat-xat-cmat/feed/6Jayein toh jayein kahaan 2018: Top MBA Collegeshttps://www.gpkafunda.com/jayein-toh-jayein-kahaan-2018-institute/
https://www.gpkafunda.com/jayein-toh-jayein-kahaan-2018-institute/#commentsFri, 19 Jan 2018 08:20:45 +0000https://www.gpkafunda.com/?p=6427A student seeking my advice on which MBA institute should he join said “Sir, if I were your nephew then after considering all factors which out of these three institutes would you recommend?”

There is always a dilemma when it comes to choosing an MBA institute because a wrong choice of institute could very easily lead to a poor career growth or waste of money or both. Unfortunately, most rankings do not consider the student’s point of view and have a low weight for one of the most important criteria – the placements.

To my mind the most important measure of the worth of a B School is its placement record and hence my preference for an institute is determined primarily by the placements. Placements refer to not only the average/median salary but also include the difficult to quantify factors like the reputation, quality of opportunities and the kind of companies that visit the institute. Secondly, with most of the good institutes charging a fee of over Rs 12 lakh for the MBA program, the cost of doing an MBA is a factor that cannot be ignored.

Between similarly placed MBA institutes the location becomes the tie breaker. I also believe that all programs in an institute are not at the same level and hence I have a program-wise order of preference and not institute-wise.

So dear nephews/nieces, my order of preference of over 100 MBA programs is given in the table below. Please note that this should not be misunderstood as a ranking of MBA institutes/programs. The institutes/programs of different levels are placed in different clusters and within a cluster the ones on top are preferred over the lower ones. However, institutes within 2-3 places of each other are at par and you could choose any of them. For the institutes in Cluster 6 it might be useful to prefer an institute in your state/region as the overall cost would be lower and being from the region could be helpful during placements. For example, if you are from West Bengal then IISWBM is likely to be a better option than IBS Hyderabad.

Finally, do not rely only on this table, do check the other sources (especially current and past students) as well and take an informed decision looking at all factors that are important for you. This table has around 144 institutes/programs and there are many good institutes that I am not aware of. Hence for institutes not in this list (also for Cluster 6 institutes) a campus visit along with interaction with current students are recommended before the final decision.

It is worth noting that Institutes in the first few clusters have been ranked based on a few more parameters. While one really cannot differentiate between IIM A, B and C. IIM A tops the list based on reputation and C comes in second place since its fees is the lowest amongst the three. FMS is in the top 5 in the list because of the ROI. JBIMS is a little lower since there is reservation for candidates from Maharashtra. TISS is a little lower in the list but that’s mostly because it is a specialized program. A general management program is preferred (over specialized programs) as it allows you to choose your area of specialization after studying all subjects in the first year. However, if you are interested in that stream then it would rank higher for you. For e.g. if you are looking for a specialization in HR then XLRI, TISS and IIM K would be your preferences.

Top MBA Colleges: Cluster 1

Undoubtedly, like every year IIM Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Bengaluru acquire the top three positions in best B- schools’ rankings respectively. With the best placement records, great reputation and endless opportunities these institutes stand as crème de la crème institutes. FMS Delhi, IIM Lucknow and XLRI are all equally good and one can choose either of these based on one’s specific requirements. If you are a candidate with over 3 years of work experience then you should be looking at ISB Hyderabad which offers a one-year course and accepts GMAT scores for admission. FMS, TISS and JBIMS stand out in terms of excellent Return on Investment (ROI) due to their very low fee and excellent placements.

1. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A)

Ahmedabad

PGP

2. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-C)

Kolkata

PGDM

3. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-B)

Bengaluru

PGP

4. Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) – Delhi University

New Delhi

MBA

5. Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI)

Jamshedpur

HRM

6. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-L)

Lucknow

PGPM

7. Xavier Labour Research Institute (XLRI)

Jamshedpur

BM

9. Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS)

Mumbai

MMS

10. Indian School of Business (ISB)

Hyderabad

PGP

11. Management Development Institute (MDI)

Gurgaon

PGPM

12. SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR)

Mumbai

PGDM

13. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS)

Mumbai

MA HRM LR

Top MBA Colleges: Cluster 2

Many other IIMs and non-IIM colleges are part of cluster 2. This cluster shows that some non-IIM institutes make their mark as better B-schools than most of the IIM colleges in terms of growth, learning and placements. IIFT Kolkata is also listed in cluster 2 along with IIFT Delhi because that they have common placements and hence there is no disparity among the two institutes. IIML ABM is preferred over IIMA FABM because while IIML does not differentiate between ABM and PGP in terms of placement opportunities, IIMA has a separate placement process for PGP and FABM. Most interesting is National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) renowned for its operations courses making its way in cluster 2.

* same ranking for the two institutes because of the common placements and almost the same set of faculty teaching at both campuses.

12. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-K)

Kozhikode

PGP

13. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-I)

Indore

PGPM

14*. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)

New Delhi

MBA

15*. Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)

Kolkata

MBA

16. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-L)

Lucknow

ABM

17. Indian Institute of Management Shillong

Shillong

PGPM

18. Indian Institute of Technology Bombay – SJSOM

Mumbai

M. MANAGEMENT

19. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A)

Ahmedabad

FABM

20. National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE)

Mumbai

PGDIM

21. Indian Institute of Management Ranchi

Ranchi

PGDM

32. Indian Institute of Technology Delhi – DMS

New Delhi

MBA

Top MBA Colleges: Cluster 3

The new IIMs feature in this cluster.IIM Ranchi is seen to be gearing up as the HRM program by IIM Ranchi has been appreciated by the industry. B-schools such as MICA and IRMA that offer specialized programs also find their spot in this cluster. It must be understood that in their specialization, these two B-schools are the best in the country. For example, MICA is regarded as one of the top most B-schools in country for its Marketing and Advertising program. NMIMS should be looked up for finance while SIBM for marketing and HR. For candidates with over 2 years of work experience Great Lakes Chennai 1 year program (PGPM) can be considered over others as it has excellent industry recognition, but it is not approved by AICTE as PGDM hence those looking for further studies or Government/PSU jobs should also enroll for distance learning MBA from IGNOU or Annamalai University else they would be considered as “graduates” and not “post graduates” in India. In this cluster the IITs can be preferred over the others due to their low fee and good placements.

*same ranking for the three institutes as the placements are at par and all three have similar location benefits and are at parity with each other.

Top MBA Colleges: Cluster 4

The highlights of this cluster are B-schools like IMI Delhi, XIMB, KJ Somaiya, TAPMI which are ranked on the basis of quality opportunities and location. These colleges are equally good based on their past records.In terms of ROI the best institutes in this cluster are MFC, DU and MSc Finance JBIMS followed by NITIE and the IITs.

41Indian Institute of Management (IIM-V)

Vishakhapatnam

PGP

42.Indian Institute of Management (IIM-N)

Nagpur

PGP

43.Indian Institute of Management (IIM-Amritsar)

Amritsar

PGP

44. Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur – DMS

Kanpur

MBA

45. Masters in International Business (MIB) Delhi School of Economics DU

Delhi

MIB

46. Master of Human Resource and Organisational Development (MHROD) Delhi School of Economics DU

Delhi

MHROD

47. Master of Finance & Control (MFC), DU

Delhi

MBA Fin

48. Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies

Mumbai

MSc Finance

49. International Management Institute (IMI)

Delhi

PGDM

50.Indian Institute of Management (IIM-S)

Sirmaur

PGP

51.Indian Institute of Management (IIM-J)

Jammu

PGP

52. T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI)

Manipal

PGDM

53. National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE)

Mumbai

PGDISEM

54. Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

Bengaluru

M.Mmgt (Tech Mgmt& Biz Analytics)

55. Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee – DMS

Roorkee

MBA

56. NarseeMonjee Institute of Management Studies

Mumbai

MBA HR

57. Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB)

Bhubaneshwar

MBA HRM

58. Indian Institute of Management (IIM-L)

Lucknow (Noida)

SM

59. Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB)

Pune

MBA IB

60. K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research (SIMSR)

Mumbai

PGDM, IB, FM

61. Goa Institute of Management (GIM)

Goa

PGDM

62. Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM)

Tiruchirapally

MBA

63. Master of Business Economics (MBE), Department of Business Economics, DU

Delhi

MBE

64. Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA)

Chennai

PGDM

65. FORE School of Management

New Delhi

PGDM, IB

Top MBA Colleges: Cluster 5

Apart from the ones mentioned above, even other colleges are not far behind. Many aspirants who are unable to crack CAT with good score can definitely think of taking up any of these colleges. The final choice is made based on preferences and the requirements of the candidate. Also, Bennett & Coleman Group’s Benenett University finds its way in this cluster right in the first year of its inception. This is majorly because for its first batch, Bennett had assured a package of at least 7.5 LPA, for every student, at any of the companies of the Times Group. This kind of a placement guarantee helps it in getting to Cluster 5

139. Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management (IISWBM)

Kolkata

MBA

140. Xavier Institute of Management & Research

Mumbai

PGDM

141. Institute of Management Studies

Noida

PGDM

142. Amity University

Noida

MBA

143. Llyod Institute of Management Studies

Greater Noida

MBA

144. PES University

Bengaluru

MBA

145. Alliance school of business

Bengaluru

MBA

146. Indira School of Business Studies

Pune

MBA, PGDM

147. Christ University

Bengaluru

MBA

148. Accurate Institute of Management and Technology

Greater Noida

MBA, PGDM

149. RayatBahra Institute of Management

Mohali

MBA

150. New Delhi Institute of Management (NDIM)

New Delhi

PGDM

151. Asian Business School

Noida

MBA/PGDM

152. Asia Pacific Business School

New Delhi

MBA/PGDM

153. Jindal Global University

Sonipat

MBA

154. University of Petroleum & Energy Studies

Dehradun

MBA

155. Ansal University

Gurgaon

MBA

156. Manav Rachna University

Faridabad

MBA

157. Delhi School of Business

New Delhi

PGDM

158. TAPMI SOB

Jaipur

MBA

159. North Cap University

Gurgaon

MBA

160. ApeejayStya

Gurgaon

MBA

161. NL Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research

Mumbai

PGDM

162. Sri Balaji Society

Pune

PGDM

163. FLAME University

Pune

MBA

164. SIES

Mumbai

PGDM

165. NIA SOM

Pune

PGDM (Insurance)

166. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Coimbatore

MBA

167. BIMM

Pune

PGDM

168. Army Institute of Management

Kolkata

MBA

169. ITM

Mumbai

PGDM

All the best
GP

]]>https://www.gpkafunda.com/jayein-toh-jayein-kahaan-2018-institute/feed/42De-coding Success in GD-PIhttps://www.gpkafunda.com/6407-2/
https://www.gpkafunda.com/6407-2/#respondThu, 11 Jan 2018 07:38:59 +0000https://www.gpkafunda.com/?p=6407Majority of good Indian B-Schools use group discussion and personal interview (GD-PI) as an integral selection tool in the admissions. The entrance test, academic scores and work experience enlist the criteria to get qualified for interview call; the final selection largely depends on your performance in the final rounds of GD-PI.

The brightest of the lot with high scores in entrance test and academics get nervous during group discussion and one to one personal interviews. Moreover, the lack of awareness and understanding of what the GD-PI panel is looking for and how to prepare for the discussions and interview result in a few successes for students. Thus, not many students are able to turn the GD-PI calls into final admission calls.

The de-coding mantra for GD-PI round includes:

Content is the key:

The knowledge and awareness about the current affairs is a must. You should be prepared around six to seven current affairs topics and start researching on these. These topics should be around political, economics and international interest. Students must research and try to remember important facts and figures regarding the topics and form some opinions with logical arguments. Apart from this, there are some generic facts that can be used in a variety of cases; for example-population, demographics, GDP, growth rate and rate of inflation for India. Further, writing essays on a variety of topics can help in developing thought structure. Some relevant topics for group discussion are:

Bitcoin Future

Bullet Train in India: Boon or Ban

Reduction in oil prices-Imperatives for Indian Economy

Whatsapp is killing minds

Election 2019

However, there could be times when you do not know much about the topic. Maintain your calm and don’t panic in such a situation. Take time and wait patiently for others to initiate, listen to their contents and start framing your ideas. In such situations it is your ability to ideate, be spontaneous & being adaptable that increase the chances for selection.

The preparation for personal interview will require you to be ready with the basic questions related to you like –

Introduce yourself- this is the potent question and can help the interviewer to select you in the very first minute of your answer.

What are your short term and long term goals- the answer should speak about clarity of your career and life goals.

Your strength and weakness- be true and don’t try to fool the panel.

Why you want to do an MBA- be clear, crisp and concise.

About your hometown, experience:- be specific

What matters is how you present:

Content alone could not lead you to success unless you present well. Presentation includes articulation of thoughts, voice and tone, timing, address to the group, dress sense and use of language and much more. A well structured articulation is a way to gain approval from the panelists. Being crisp and concise and speaking right points at the right time is very essential in the discussion. One should address the entire group with respect while making an argument and should not talk to an individual. Further, one should avoid looking at the moderators as they are not the part of the group. The use of gestures such as pointing fingers, extreme words and statements is a strict no. The art of disagreeing with a pleasant tone and expression will help you win the situation. Use of formal dress and formal language also add value to your overall presentation. Those who commence and conclude the GD generally gain a few marks of appreciation as well.

Presenting your self doesn’t necessarily means using flowery language and putting a mask. One must be true in expressing oneself and should always remember that the members sitting in the interview panel are smarter and more experienced than us.

Right Attitude:

The candidates need to understand the difference between being assertive & confident and being dominating & overconfident. The B-school’s selection panel is looking for team players who can be a team player and a team leader if needed. Thus they judge you on your team skills and attitude. Ability to listen and connect with others will help you in gaining some positive points. Having the ability to speak with clarity and being assertive is very critical. At the same time one must always listen to what others are saying, discuss their points & try generating new ideas. Being dominating and not letting others speak is an easy way to get eliminated.

The panel may like to evaluate you in the panic and stressful situations. Thus, just have a positive attitude and stay calm.

Brief Profile of the Author:

Dr. Vaishali Agarwal

She has interviewed thousands of MBA and PGDM aspirants in the tenure of last 15 years during her academic career across various management institutions in India. Her areas of interest include Marketing Management, Services Marketing, Sales and Distribution and Consumer Behavior. She has participated in number of national and international conferences and has number of publications to her credit in the various journals of National repute and in the conference proceedings of National and International Conferences. She has organized and delivered the in-company training programs for the PSUs like PDIL and Oriental Bank of Commerce, Noida and delivered training programs for companies like Dr. Reddy’s, Wipro, ICICI bank, etc.

]]>https://www.gpkafunda.com/6407-2/feed/05 Mantras to master the Interviewhttps://www.gpkafunda.com/5-mantras-master-interview/
https://www.gpkafunda.com/5-mantras-master-interview/#respondWed, 03 Jan 2018 12:30:59 +0000https://www.gpkafunda.com/?p=6384With the declaration of SNAP 2018-20120and the rest lined up to be declared soon, a sense of urgency, regarding interview preparation, has crept in. The CAT 2017 Percentile Predictor and the IIFT Score Calculatorreleased by CL have allowed MBA aspirants to have a reasonably good idea of their chances of interview calls from their desired institutes. Similarly, those with an NMAT score of over 208 can expect calls from all NM institutes and those with around 195+ can expect calls from NM Bangalore and Hyderabad. However, this also means that they now have to prepare not only for the other MBA entrances, XAT/TISS, but also focus onPDP Classesto ensure a good performance in the interview stage.

But the question that many candidates have is that can we not defer the PDP classes till mid January when MBA entrances will be over and also the CAT/IIFT/NMAT results will be declared? The answer is an unambiguous NO. Delaying will have an adverse impact on your interview preparation and hence your performance will suffer.

Let us have a look at the time lines. IIFT, NM and SNAP interviews are typically conducted in end January to early February period and the interviews of IIMs start around first week of February. Hence, if you wait till mid January then you will not have sufficient time to prepare.

The reality is that the Personality Assessment stage is the most difficult part of the selection process. While the number of students you will be competing against is fewer, the quality of competition is higher. Each student who is short listed by the institute deserves to be in the final list, but only those who are well prepared will finally make it. This stage is difficult because its focus is on those aspects that have been ignored by most of us as they were never part of our school and college exams.

The questions asked in the interview are very simple, but the answer requires deeper introspection. Also, unfortunately, there is no specific way of answering these questions and worse each one of us will have a different answer. Some of the commonly asked questions in the interview are:

Tell me something about yourself

What are your strengths and weakness?

What do you consider is your biggest achievement in life so far?

Why do you want to do an MBA?

Which is your favourite subject?

Are you satisfied with your academic performance?

The answer to each of the above question will come only after deep introspection of self which unfortunately requires time and cannot be left for the 2-4 weeks between the call letter and the actual interview.

In addition to the interview many institutes have other evaluation tools or activities like group discussion, case study, group task, extempore, etc. which many of you have never been a part of. Hence, you need time to understand these tools and practice them. This is where MBA aspirants with work experience have an advantage over college students. Those of you with work experience would have been exposed to some of these evaluation tools during your recruitment process but may still need to understand its intricacies and will most probably need practice.

If you think that this stage is all about personal attributes and ability to speak and you can afford to ignore your academics/job, you are mistaken. This stage also evaluates you on what you gained in college, your job and your knowledge of the environment (general awareness).

So along with your XAT and TISS preparation, you should start preparing for personality assessment as well.

How to prepare?

While most CL students are already be enrolled in a program that will prepare them for the Personality Assessment stage, unfortunately many of you will delay the process and start your preparation for personality assessment only after mid-January. The onus of utilizing the next 45 days productively is entirely upon you. So, let us see what all you need to do in these 45 days to ensure that you are not caught unaware when you receive your interview call letter. You need to work on the following three broad areas:

Academics and/or Work

General Awareness

Self-awareness

Academics / Work:

This is the area from which questions are invariably asked to all students. In terms of preparation this is the easiest – all you need to do is study. Prepare a couple of subjects from your final year and brush up the fundamentals of the key subjects. You should also revise your summer internship report, term papers or any project that you may have done as part of your academic program.

In case you are working, you need to have not only complete understanding of your work but also knowledge of your company and the environment (market and the industry) in which you operate. Key assignments or projects undertaken by you are also important because they can help prove your understanding of work.

General Awareness:

I know that most of you are not very fond of reading newspapers but for the next 3 months it is essential that you read it daily. While I prefer Indian Express, you can start with whichever newspaper you are comfortable with. In addition to the front page that most of you glance through, you should read the editorial and the business pages also. The Sunday newspaper has articles from diverse areas written by people holding different points of view on an issue. Read all of them and you will not suffer from lack of knowledge during an interview or group discussion. Additionally, read a current affairs weekly to ensure that what you read in the newspaper during the week gets reinforced. Those of you who have a background in business studies, commerce or economics should read a business newspaper also.

Self-Awareness

This is the most difficult area in terms of preparation and will need introspection. Many interview questions are asked to understand you as an individual – your motivations or reasons for your actions in the past, your strengths and weakness, your likes and dislikes, etc. To be able to answer these questions convincingly you need to first understand yourself. The answers to many of these questions may require a discussion with your parents or siblings or with someone who knows you well. A good starting point is to write down an essay on yourself. You can also explore yourself with various psychometric tests such as LOCO Test (determines how much you internalize and externalize), PE Test (Personal Effectiveness Test), Big 5 Personality Test (Tests you on five broad dimensions of personality, used by large number of companies) in the CL’sStudent Information System (SIS). You can also browse through various knowledge sessions, Self-Introspection activities and webinar sessions by CL’s marquee PDP faculty.

Finally

Working on the above areas while clears self-doubts and prepares you in terms of knowledge, you will still need to do mock group discussions, interviews, etc. You cannot learn swimming by reading a book, you need to jump in the pool. So, form a group that meets regularly for group discussions and case studies; dig deep into your past to identify possible questions and create answers for them; pair up with a friend to discuss and refine your answers; The more you practice the better off you will be.

To summarize, mastering the following 5 Mantras should get you battle ready:

Since its inception in 1995, ICFAI Business School has been one of the best B-Schools in the country, providing excellent academic delivery and infrastructure to its students. IBS is among the partner b-schools of CL.

At IBS, we offer innovative and globally accepted programs and great opportunities for all-round development. 100% case-based learning is unique to IBS. IBS transforms its students into leaders of the future.

Programs Offered

ICFAI Business School offers two management programs viz. MBA and PGPM (Post Graduate Program in Management) through its 9 campuses located across India. i.e., Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Dehradun, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.

IBS Strengths

9 Campuses

Excellent Placements

International Placement Opportunities

7000+ Students

Case Based Learning

Association with 1000+ Recruiters

43000+ alumni

Network for life

Eligibility

Graduation (any discipline) with 50% and above marks (as calculated by respective University) with medium of instruction as English.

Admission Process

IBSAT2017 is an online aptitude test conducted by The ICFAI Foundation For Higher Education (a deemed to be University under Section 3 of UGC act 1956), for students seeking admission to the MBA / PhD programs of IBS Hyderabad.

IBSAT is a Computer Based Test (CBT) and consists of multiple choice questions. IBSAT is of 2 hours duration and is aimed at testing the applicant’s ability in quantitative techniques, data interpretation, data adequacy, vocabulary, analytical reasoning and reading comprehension

The Selection Process

Candidates who have qualified based on IBSAT 2017/(GMAT® / NMAT by GMACTM / CAT) 2015 onwards score are called for the selection process at IBS Hyderabad in February 2018. The selection process comprises of Group Discussion and Personal Interview.